steve nash. [ woman ] so...how exactly would this revolutionize the game? it's quiet. [ woman ] what's that? [ man ] that's our sleeping baby test. [ male announcer ] at bridgestone our passion for performance knows no bounds. the other airlines versus southwest in bag fee barrage. [ announcer 2 ] the other airlines contestant is getting pummeled with bag fees. oh, but he's flying southwest. no bag fees for this guy! got to give it up for bags fly free. business travelers win with southwest.

captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> kroft: this is the google- esque headquarters of china's first international conglomerate. huawei wants to build and maintain the next generation of digital networks here in the united states that would carry everything from our e-mails and phone calls to documents and blueprints. it's raising questions about national security and chinese espionage. >> if i were an american company today and you were looking at huawei, i would find another vendor, if you care about your intellectual property, if you care about your consumers' privacy, and you care about the national security of the united states of america. >> we have prada. we have chanel. we have dolce gabbana.

we have versace. we have burberry. >> stahl: luxottica started here as a small tool shop in agordo, a dot of a town in the italian alps when frames were still made of mountain goat horns. do you have any idea how many people in the world are wearing your glasses right now? >> at least half a billion. >> ♪ i wonder how many times you been had... ♪ >> simon: in the late '60s, a singer/songwriter named rodriguez cut a couple of records that got great reviews but bombed. well, they didn't sell in america, but in south africa, for some reason, rodriguez was bigger than elvis or the beatles. but rodriguez didn't know a thing about it. unbelievable, right? well, just wait until you hear the rest of his story. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm leslie stahl.

>> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." [ male announcer ] you're not the type of person who sets goals and only hopes to achieve them. so you'll be happy to know that when it comes to your investment goals, northern trust uses award-winning expertise to lead you through an interactive investment process. adding precision to your portfolio construction by directly matching your assets and your risk preferences against your unique life goals. we call it goals driven investing. your life has a sense of purpose. shouldn't your investments? ♪ expertise matters. find it at northern trust. ♪ go out tonight - be social! then stay in tomorrow. make a date with your flat screen. olive garden's new dinner today, dinner tomorrow. two dinners for two nights, just $12.95. choose one of five entrees tonight, like new mezzaluna ravioli. served with unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks. then choose a second entrée to take home for tomorrow

all for just $12.95. this has "movie night" written all over it. new dinner today, dinner tomorrow go before it's gone! go olive garden. hurry into lowe's and take advantage of great fall savings like 10% off major appliances of $399 or more, including washers, dryers, and refrigerators. plus, choose special financing for 18 months on purchases of $599 or more with your lowe's consumer credit card. and for any fall home painting projects, pick up some valspar signature interior paint and get $5 off via online or mail-in rebate. make the most of your autumn with these and other great columbus day offers. lowe's. never stop improving. you.piano ] these and other great columbus day offers. we know you. we know you're not always on top of it. and how could you be? that often you just want... quiet. we know all that life demands from you. and how it's almost impossible for you to escape. almost.

introducing a car made better for you in every way. the luxurious, all-new honda accord. it starts with you. huh? you're not my dad ahhhhh!!! hey honey, back feels better, little dancing tonight, you and me? hey boy, you wanna go for a walk? dr. scholl's pro inserts with shock guard technology relieve different types of lower body pain by treating at the source so you're a whole new you. where is everybody? that's not your dad. go pro with dr. scholl's. so, why are we up here? because farmers offers a new-roof discount? [ thudding ] oh, boy. yep. and it's an agent's job to help people find new ways to save. there's some cool stuff up here. there sure is. [ man ] look what i found. it's a fiddler on the roof. ♪ [ up-tempo country ]

what are the chances? [ announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ >> kroft: if you're concerned about the decline of american economic power and the rise of china, then there is no better case study than huawei. chances are you've never heard of this chinese technology giant, but in the space of 25 years, it's become the largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment in the world-- everything from smart phones to switchers and routers that form the backbone

of the global communications network. it's an industry the u.s. invented and once dominated, but no more. now, huawei is aggressively pursuing a foothold in the united states, hoping to build the next generation of digital networks here. it's prompted an outcry in washington and a year-long investigation by the house intelligence committee that has raised concerns about national security, chinese espionage, and huawei's murky connections to the chinese government. huawei's world headquarters is located on this sprawling google-esque campus in shenzhen, not far from hong kong. china's first international conglomerate is a private company, ostensibly owned by its 140,000 employees, but exactly how that works and other details of corporate governance are closely held secrets. what we do know is that huawei is now the world leader in designing and building fourth-

generation communication networks, known as 4-g, the latest technology for moving high volumes of phone calls, data, and high definition video. its innovative low-cost systems have already captured markets in africa, latin american and europe. now, with huawei eyeing potential customers in the u.s., congressional leaders and the national security establishment are doing everything they can to prevent it from happening. do we trust the chinese? >> mike rogers: if i were an american company today-- and i'll tell you this as the chairman of the house permanent select committee on intelligence-- and you are looking at huawei, i would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property, if you care about your consumers' privacy, and you care about the national security of the united states of america. >> kroft: republican congressman mike rogers and the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee, dutch ruppersberger, believe that letting a chinese company build and maintain critical communication infrastructure

here would be a serious mistake. >> dutch ruppersberger: one of the main reasons we are having this investigation is to educate the citizens in business in the united states of america. in the telecommunications world, once you get the camel's nose in the tent, you can go anywhere. >> kroft: their overriding concern is this-- that the chinese government could exploit huawei's presence on u.s. networks to intercept high-level communications, gather intelligence, wage cyber war, and shut down or disrupt critical services in times of national emergency. >> jim lewis: this is a strategic industry, and it's like aircraft or space launch or computers, i.t. it's a strategic industry in the sense that an opponent can gain serious advantage, can gain serious benefit from being able to exploit the telecommunications network. >> kroft: jim lewis has followed huawei's explosive growth for years from the state department and the commerce department,

where his job was to identify foreign technologies that might pose a threat to national security. how did they get so big and so cheap so quickly? >> lewis: two answers. first, steady, extensive support from the chinese government. if you're willing to funnel hundreds of millions, maybe even billions of dollars to a company, they're going to be able to grow. the second reason is industrial espionage. and huawei was famous in their developing years for taking other people's technology. >> kroft: you mean stealing? >> lewis: i guess technically, yes, it would be theft. >> kroft: cisco accused huawei of copying one of its network routers, right down to the design flaws and typos in the manual. and motorola alleged that huawei recruited its employees to steal company secrets. both cases were settled out of court. but the pentagon and the director of national intelligence have identified chinese actors as the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage.

>> bill plummer: huawei is huawei; huawei is not china. >> kroft: bill plummer is the american face of huawei, the company's u.s. vice president of external relations and the only executive the home office in shenzhen would let us speak to. we met him at huawei's north american headquarters in plano, texas. >> plummer: we have the responsibility to clean up ten years of misinformation and innuendo. >> kroft: what's the misinformation and innuendo? >> plummer: the suggestion that a company, by virtue of its heritage or flag of headquarters, is somehow more vulnerable than any other company to... to some sort of mischief. >> kroft: plummer told us that huawei is just another multinational corporation doing business in the united states, no different than siemens, samsung, or hyundai. >> plummer: this room is a clean room. >> kroft: he says huawei buys $6 billion in components from american suppliers every year and indirectly employs 35,000 americans.

and he says that the latest telecom gear huawei hopes to sell in the u.s. poses no threat. one national security expert said that, if you build a network like this in another country, you basically have the keys to intercepting their communications. is that a true statement? >> plummer: part of that might be a little bit fantastical, but you know, huawei is a business in the business of doing business. $32.4 billion in revenues last year across 150 different markets; 70% of our business outside of china. huawei is not going to jeopardize its commercial success for any government, period. >> kroft: what's the relationship between huawei and the chinese government? >> plummer: we have a beijing office. so, you know, we're a regulated industry the same as we are here. you need to be able to interface with government. >> kroft: so you're saying the chinese government has no influence over huawei. >> plummer: we're another business doing business in china. >> kroft: if you look at huawei, it looks like just a big

international company with an american face. >> chris johnson: yep. and that's the intent. >> kroft: until last spring, chris johnson was the c.i.a.'s top analyst on china, and he's briefed the last three presidents on what's been happening behind the scenes in beijing. he tells a different story than huawei's bill plummer. >> johnson: the problem, i think, is really it boils down to an issue of will the company take some steps to make themselves, you know, more transparent about their operations and what their ultimate goal is, especially this relationship with the chinese government, with the chinese communist party, and with the people's liberation army. >> kroft: johnson says the military has always played a role in chinese telecommunications, and that huawei's reclusive c.e.o. served as an army major in telecommunications research before he retired and founded huawei, supposedly with a few thousand dollars in savings and no help from the chinese government. what could you tell me about the guy that runs this company, ren? >> johnson: ren zhengfei, yeah. he's a very mysterious figure. ( laughs )

and, you know, there really isn't that much known about him. >> kroft: has he ever given an interview? >> johnson: not that i'm aware of. of course, it does then generate these concerns about why he won't give an interview, and why he won't say something about his role in the company and his philosophy of how the company operates. >> kroft: unlike western companies that are usually regulated and scrutinized, about the only entity privy to the inner workings of huawei is a communist party committee, which has offices inside the company's headquarters. >> johnson: you know, at the end of the day, the communist party controls the entire economy. they ultimately decide who the winners and losers are. the ultimate leverage that they have over these type of companies is that they can, you know, launch a corruption investigation against the chairman, for example. >> kroft: if the chinese government told huawei that they wanted them to spy on the u.s. telecommunication system and extract information, could huawei say no? >> johnson: it'd be very difficult for them, given the nature of their system. >> lewis: it's a different system than ours. here, companies are used to, you know, throwing their weight around and telling the government what to do.

in china, a company is a chia pet. the state tells them what to do and they do it. >> kroft: there is no hard evidence that's happened with huawei, but the obama administration has been unwilling to take the risk. two years ago, when it appeared that huawei might land its first big american deal-- a $5 billion contract to build sprint's new 4-g wireless network-- the u.s. government stepped in. >> lewis: you had the secretary of commerce call the c.e.o. of sprint and lay out the u.s. concerns, say that the u.s. was really worried about huawei. and they would be a lot happier if sprint didn't do the deal. >> kroft: and sprint said, "okay." >> lewis: sprint said, "okay." >> kroft: since then, huawei has blanketed u.s. airwaves with commercials, and hired an army of lobbyists and public relations firms to help it get a foothold into the world's largest telecom market. >> lewis: they're determined. they're in it for the long haul. the line that most people think about is, mao had a strategy

called "win the countryside, surround the cities, and then the cities will fall." and huawei seems to be following that maoist strategy. >> kroft: in the last couple of years, huawei has managed to install and maintain a handful of networks in u.s. rural markets, including a vast quadrant of southwestern kansas. craig mock is the president and general manager of united wireless, based in the historic cowboy town of dodge city. >> craig mock: we're trying to reach out as far as we can into rural areas. >> kroft: mock told us the new huawei network delivers some of the fastest internet speeds in the country. but last spring, after the deal had been signed with huawei, mock received an unwelcome visit from two federal agents. who were they, intelligence people? >> mock: not going to say. >> kroft: why did they come out here? >> mock: i think they would've preferred that we bought equipment from somebody else. >> kroft: what was your reaction? were you upset that they came out? >> mock: i was not pleased.

>> kroft: because? >> mock: because i saw it as interference in our operations. if we're not able to buy the very best equipment and deploy it in a efficient manner, then everybody suffers. >> kroft: were there any american companies that bid on this? >> mock: i don't know of any american companies that makes this equipment. >> kroft: about the only real american competitor huawei has left is cisco, which is still a worldwide player, but doesn't produce all the equipment necessary to construct a 4-g network. the only companies that do are all foreign-- huawei; ericsson, which is swedish; and the french company alcatel-lucent. >> lewis: that's where we've ended up. we now depend entirely on foreign suppliers-- three european, two chinese. no americans. >> kroft: the united states used to dominate this field. >> lewis: yeah, it's true. you know, i guess just we were asleep at the switch. >> kroft: what happened? >> lewis: some of it was just bad planning at the company level. some of it was a lack of attention by the government.

i mean, we would not have let the space industry go out of business. we would not say, "oh, we'll depend on foreign companies to launch our satellites." but we didn't do that for telecom. >> kroft: concerned and suspicious of what it calls "continued chinese penetration of u.s. telecommunications," the house intelligence committee called huawei executive charles ding to answer questions about the company's corporate structure, ownership, finances, and management. the committee seemed to get nowhere. >> rogers: the committee has been disappointed that the company's provided little actual evidence to ameliorate the committee's concerns. >> kroft: huawei's bill plummer says the company bears some of the responsibility for the lack of communication. >> plummer: you're right that, over the ten years of explosive growth, we were not as good at communicating about ourselves as we could or should have been. but over the last couple of years, we've really stepped that up. i mean, you want to know more about us? we're an open book. >> kroft: really? >> plummer: yeah.

>> kroft: has mr. ren ever given an interview? >> plummer: mr. ren is not terribly well-known for his... his getting out in front of the media. >> kroft: we requested interviews at various points along the way with company officials, both in china and here. and we got their most important spokesman and lobbyist here in the united states. but it's not like they swung open the doors and said, you know, "we're an open book." >> plummer: well, i think that... >> kroft: you allowed our camera crews into your facilities in shenzhen, and there was a big banner saying, "welcome, '60 minutes'." but we weren't allowed to talk to anybody, to speak to anybody. >> plummer: the goal of the visit to shenzhen was to give a really rich and visual impression of the company. it is a company that has experienced a history of not fully balanced treatment by the media, and that's created a sense of wariness.

>> kroft: huawei is not going to like the treatment it receives from the house permanent select committee on intelligence any better. its final report is due tomorrow. >> hello, everyone. welcome to the cbs sports update presented by e trade. i'm james brown in new york with the scores from around the nfl. atlanta is 5-0 for the first time ever. new england's tom brady won his showdown with denver's peyton manning. baltimore takes sole possession of first place in the a.f.c. north while chicago and minnesota remain tied atop the n.f.c. north. for indy, it was an emotional win for their ailing coach chuck pagano. for more go to cbssports.com. two golden crowns. you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled

by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day? frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. [ gasps ] ♪ [ male announcer ] get a retirement plan that works at e-trade. [ female announcer ] those who look to fuel body and mind with the simplest of grains, they are not hard to find. just four ingredients, it all starts here. just as it was back 100 years. from the seed to the spoon, simple things go into every flake, every bite, genuine, true. the simple grains cereals from kellogg's. start simple. start right. enough already. c'mon guys. next question. hello! what's your favorite color? what's my favorite color? yes. purple. what's your favorite animal? sea turtle. what's your bedtime? do you believe in space aliens? ...i love puppies.

hash browns or home fries? home fries. do you like my dress? why can't you guys ask good questions like this? [ morgan ] for a chance to interview an nfl player... join visa nfl fan offers and make your season epic. flavor, meet food. it's time for swanson flavor boost. concentrated broth in easy to use packets. mix it into skillet dishes, for an instant dose of... hell-o! [ female announcer ] get recipes at flavorboost.com.

>> stahl: have you bought a pair of glasses lately?

bet your eyes popped when you saw the price tag. if you don't go to places like walmart or costco, you could easily be spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a pair that cost $30 ten years ago. talk about sticker shock. and it's not as though things have changed that much-- they're still made of a couple of pieces of plastic or wire, some screws, and glass. why should a pair of glasses cost more than an ipad? well, one answer is because one company controls a big chunk of the business. never has there been so much choice-- ray-bans, oakleys; glasses for running and skiing and even reading. ( laughs ) a staggering variety of colors and designers. you'd think the competition would force the prices down. wow, look at that. one reason it hasn't is a little-known but very big italian company called luxottica. if you own a nice pair of specs or shades, they're probably theirs. luxottica is the biggest eyewear

company on earth. it shuns publicity, but c.e.o. andrea guerra invited us in for a look, and it was eye-opening. do you have any idea how many people in the world are wearing your glasses right now? >> andrea guerra: at least half a billion are wearing our glasses now. >> stahl: luxottica started here as a small tool shop in agordo, a dot of a town in the italian alps, when frames were still made of mountain goat horns. this was the factory in 1961. this is what it looks like today. last year, luxottica made some 65 million pairs of sunglasses and optical frames. they don't make prescription lenses. we saw mountains and mountains of glasses in boxes headed to china, india, brazil, and above all, to the u.s. but they're very expensive. they can be very expensive.

>> guerra: they can. this is one of the very few objects that are 100% functional, 100% aesthetical, and they need to be on your face for 15 hours a day. not easy, and there's a lot of work behind them. >> stahl: luxottica's product manager isabella sola explained that the company revolutionized how we see glasses. you think i look cool? >> isabella sola: yes, i think so. >> stahl: i think i look cool, too. it wasn't that long ago that glasses were uncool. you only wore them if you absolutely had to. i can remember, not that many years ago, my mother telling me that men will never ask me out if i wear my glasses. i was to go blind if i wanted dates. but luxottica took this medical device and turned it into high fashion, by making deals to conceive and create high- quality, stylish specs for nearly every brand and label you

can think of. >> sola: we have prada. we have chanel. we have dolce gabbana. we have versace. we have burberry. we have ralph lauren. we have tiffany. we have bulgari. >> stahl: they're not even called "glasses" anymore; they're "eyewear." do people really wear this? >> sola: yes. >> stahl: once glasses became "face jewelry," luxottica could charge a hefty markup. but you know something-- i know that there are some less expensive glasses that look very similar to the very expensive. for example, this is your vogue line, which is not that expensive. >> sola: yes. >> stahl: and this is... >> sola: coach. >> stahl: coach, which is much more expensive. if two women walked down the street with these on... >> sola: yes, they almost look the same. >> stahl: almost the same. >> sola: but it's almost; it's not the same. >> stahl: not the same because of details on the frames like

the little chanel cs, polo ponies, or tiffany blue. luxottica wouldn't tell us their mark-up, but glasses like these can sell for up to 20 times what they cost to make. and all the glasses are designed by luxottica. so you design thousands of pairs of glasses. >> sola: we do, yes. >> stahl: where does tiffany come into it? >> sola: tiffany comes in at every stage, basically. >> stahl: the fashion houses send in sketches of their new collections as inspiration. and down on the factory floor, you can see the work that goes into differentiating the brands. plain plastic temples go through a painting machine and come out "versace." stones are inserted one by one into the dolce gabbana, and leather is carefully threaded for that chanel bag look. if people begin to know that chanel glasses were designed by

luxottica, would it change the way they think about chanel glasses? >> guerra: you know, that would be totally wrong, that would be crazy. >> stahl: but why isn't the luxottica name a brand name? are you in any way hiding it? >> guerra: hiding it? >> stahl: yeah. >> guerra: not at all. we are listed. >> stahl: listed on the new york stock exchange, where luxottica shares are soaring. the company raked in $8 billion last year. but their best seller wasn't a fancy fashion house label; it was a brand they outright own, ray-ban. originally made by bausch and lomb for the u.s. army, since j.f.k., nearly every president has worn them, not to mention tom cruise in "risky business" and "top gun." but the brand was poorly managed, cheapened, and eventually put up for sale. the italians bought it in 1999, and had a strategy to turn

things around. >> guerra: we stopped selling sunglasses from ray-ban for more or less a year. >> stahl: when you bought it, you could buy them for, i don't even know how little money. >> guerra: $29. >> stahl: $29 at the drug store, at a gas station, and you took them off the market. >> guerra: we refurbished everything. >> stahl: and made them upscale. today, those $29 pairs can cost $150 and more, and ray-ban is the top-selling sunglass brand in the world. when americans go to buy these glasses, i'll bet 99% think they're buying an american brand. >> guerra: it is an american brand. what's wrong with it? i mean, it's an american brand owned by italians. i think the world is... the world is this. >> stahl: it is the world, and we don't realize it, that's the thing. before i started working on this story, i'd never heard the name

luxottica. >> guerra: yeah. >> stahl: which is all the more surprising since luxottica not only bought ray-ban, they also bought lenscrafters, the largest eyewear retail chain in north america. so now they make them and they sell them. it's great for business, but is it great for the consumer? i asked lenscrafters' president, mark weikel. how many non-luxottica brands do you sell here? >> weikel: we probably have a few brands that aren't luxottica. >> stahl: mostly luxottica? >> weikel: mostly luxottica, yeah. >> stahl: so, since luxottica owns you, does the consumer get a break on glasses made by them in lenscrafters? >> weikel: what the customer gets at lenscrafters is a variety of services and products, including this broad assortment of frames... >> stahl: mark, you're not answering my question. i'm asking if you charge less for frames made by luxottica since you're the same company. >> weikel: i think every competitor, every retail optical brand, determines what their pricing is on whatever their

brands are. >> stahl: that's a no. consumers do not get a break. at lenscrafters, the average cost for a pair of frames and lenses is about $300. you may think, well, there's choice in the mall for other glasses. but luxottica doesn't only own the top eyewear chain in the country; it owns another large chain, pearle vision, and oliver peoples, and several boutique chains. and it runs target optical and sears optical. and we're not done-- luxottica also owns sunglass hut, the largest sunglass chain in the world. so, is there a free market in eyewear? >> brett arends: no, i don't think there really is. i think one company has excessive dominance in the market. >> stahl: smartmoney.com columnist brett arends says the appearance of variety is an optical illusion. >> arends: the reality is, it's

like... you know, it's like pro- wrestling competition. and it's actually fake competition. >> stahl: consider what happened to oakley, the world-famous maker of advanced sports eyewear. >> arends: oakley was a big competitor, and they had a fight with luxottica. and luxottica basically said, "we're dropping you from our stores." and oakley... >> stahl: they refused to sell their glasses in their stores. >> arends: yeah, there was a dispute about pricing, and they dropped oakley from the stores, and oakley's stock price collapsed. how is oakley going to reach the consumer if they can't get their sunglasses in sunglass hut? >> guerra: there were some issues between the two companies in the beginning of the 2000s. but both of them understood that it was better to go along. >> stahl: better to let you buy them? >> guerra: i wouldn't say this. we merged with oakley in 2007. >> stahl: you bought oakley. they tried to compete and they lost, and then you bought them. >> guerra: i understand your theory, but they understood that life was better together. >> stahl: so now, luxottica owns the two top premium sunglass

brands in the world, ray-ban and oakley. but luxottica points out there are other players. who's your biggest competitor in the united states? >> guerra: you could say walmart. >> stahl: also costco and emerging online companies like warby parker. but other competitors told us luxottica has them in a chokehold-- if you make glasses, you want to be in their stores; and if you have stores, you want to sell ray-bans. so luxottica can set the prices as high as it wants. >> arends: luxottica's dominance, it's what's called a "price maker," which means that essentially it can set prices and other people will follow in its wake. >> stahl: which, he says, is why glasses in general cost so much, even at your local optician's. >> arends: the whole point of a luxury brand is to persuade people to pay $200 for a product that cost $30 to make. >> stahl: well, let me show you something. why is it any different than my shoe?

>> arends: well, to some extent, there's actually a lot of comparisons. the difference is that the entire shoe industry isn't made by one company. and the same company doesn't also own all the shoe stores. >> stahl: you'd think, well, surely, insurance companies covering vision would complain. but guess what? luxottica also owns the nation's second largest vision-care plan, eye-med, covering eye exams and glasses. what don't you own? >> guerra: a lot of things. >> stahl: not really. >> guerra: ( laughs ) >> stahl: you seem to, really. why not combine everything under one name? >> guerra: i think people love diversities, people love to have different brands, people love to have different experiences. >> stahl: it's an illusion of choice if you're all owned by the same company. >> guerra: i think this is totally wrong. the question is, what kind of choice consumer has. it's not a question of how many you own. >> stahl: how does the consumer

benefit from all this? your prices are still high. >> guerra: if you go to a shoe company, would you say that their prices are high? >> stahl: you're trying to tell me it's all worth all that money. >> guerra: everything is worth what people are ready to pay. >> stahl: and you know what? he's right. it seems people are ready to pay-- a lot. i bet they cost a fortune >> they're not too expensive. >> stahl: they cost almost $400. with prescription lenses, the price could jump to $600 or more. [ female announcer ] we've all read the reports. seen the studies. fast food restaurants are catching an earful these days. too much fat. too much cholesterol. too much too much. so when the american heart association says something positive about a fast food restaurant, that's news, too, isn't it? subway is the first restaurant to earn the american heart association heart check, meeting the rigorous criteria that go beyond just calories. look for the "heart check" on many subway fresh fit meals.

including subs like the tempting roast beef. subway. eat fresh. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. have youdéja, deja-vu?, deja, the headphone jack is going to be on the bottom.

(explosion noise) welcome back! guess the galaxy s3 didn't work out. no, i love the gs3. it's awesome. i'm just saving a spot in line for someone. hey! hey! mom, dad! oh, thanks for holding our spot. you guys have fun. home by midnight you two. hahaha vo: the next big thing is already here. the samsung galaxy s3. wait honey, this is the line for apps. i stand... yep! online outfit piccolo headphones buy now broadway show megapixels place to sleep little roadster war and peace deep sea diving ninja app hipster glasses 5% cash back sign up to get 5% everywhere online through december. only from discover.

>> simon: like so many musicians before him, the singer/ songwriter named rodriguez came from nowhere.

he was born poor in detroit, spent his life poor in detroit. in the late '60s, he cut a couple of records. they got great reviews but went nowhere. what he didn't know, what no one in america knew, was that halfway around the world in south africa, he was more popular than elvis or the beatles. he'd never been there. no one there knew anything about him. even when word spread that he had died, his records continued to sell. then, four years ago, a young swedish filmmaker heard about rodriguez, decided to shoot a documentary about him. the film now captivating audiences across the country is being talked about as a possible candidate for an academy award. it's released by sony pictures classics and called "searching for sugar man." ♪ ♪

the film shows rodriguez's old neighborhood in downtown detroit and the smoky bar where, back in the late '60s, he was discovered by dennis coffey, a legendary motown producer. >> dennis coffey: we thought he was like the inner city poet, you know, putting his poems to music of what he saw. and it was definitely a very gritty look at what he saw on the streets of detroit. the only writer that i had heard of of that time period was maybe bob dylan, that was writing that well. ♪ ♪ >> simon: coffey co-produced his first album, "cold fact." critics liked it, but it bombed. steve rowland was responsible for his second. it did no better. >> steve rowland: nobody in america had even heard of him. nobody... nobody even was interested in listening to him.

how can that be? how can that be? ♪ ♪ >> simon: and how could it be that no one in america knew that rodriguez had become an icon in south africa? steve segerman owns a record store in cape town. >> steve segerman: to many of us south africans, he was the soundtrack to our lives. if you walked into a random white, liberal, middle-class household that had a turntable and a pile of pop records, you would always see "cold fact" by rodriguez. to us, it was one of the most famous records of all time. >> simon: it was the 1970s, and under apartheid, political repression was at its height. rodriguez's lyrics resonated with people who'd had it with the system. >> rodriguez: ♪ the mayor hides the crime rate ♪ councilwoman hesitates ♪ public gets irate, but forgets the vote date ♪ this system's going to fall

soon ♪ to an angry young tune ♪ and that's a concrete cold fact... ♪ >> segerman: we didn't know what the word "anti-establishment" was until it cropped up on a rodriguez song. and then, we found out it's okay to protest against your society, to be angry with your society. >> simon: south africans were buying half a million of his records, and were astonished to learn that no one else in the world had ever heard of him. he was the ultimate enigma. >> segerman: then we found out that he had committed suicide. he set himself alight on stage and burnt to death in front of the audience. it was probably the most grotesque suicide in rock history. >> simon: but there was no proof, so record store owner segerman and his friends started investigating. 25 years after hearing those records, they spotted the word "dearborn" in one of his songs. dearborn is near detroit. and, as the film shows, that's where they found rodriguez's house.

♪ ♪ and there he was, very much alive. ♪ ♪ his neighbors knew him as an odd character who walked around with a guitar. >> he was this wandering spirit around... around the city. you know, detroit's got its share of burned-out, desolate areas, and i would... i would occasionally see him... i thought he was just a... i... just not much more than a kind of a homeless person. >> simon: but he wasn't homeless. he was the son of an immigrant worker from mexico. he'd lived in this house with a wood burning stove for 40 years. and all this time, he had been working as a day laborer-- demolition, roofing, heavy construction. he also managed to get a degree in philosophy.

rodriguez didn't know his records had been selling like wildfire in south africa. he'd never seen a penny. then, in 1998, his fans invited him to tour south africa. he and his three daughters had no idea limos would be waiting for them at the airport. regan is his youngest daughter. >> regan rodriguez: i only assumed the limousines were for some dignitary or celebrity, someone that we should stay out of the way of. but instead, they were for my father. ( cheers and applause ) >> simon: regan said she expected 20, maybe 30 people to show up at his concert. there were 5,000. and when rodriguez stepped out onto the stage, they wouldn't let him start singing, not for ten minutes. ( cheers and applause ) ♪ ♪ >> regan rodriguez: for them to

see him, when they thought he had died, it was like they had a chance to see some type of resurrection. ( cheers and applause ) >> rodriguez: thanks for keeping me alive. >> simon: the beatles and the stones had played to crazed houses, too. but to these people, rodriguez was like lazarus-- he had risen from the dead. the concert wasn't just a success; it was a miracle. >> regan rodriguez: looking out in the crowd, people were singing every note, every song, every word. ♪ ♪ >> simon: in south africa, rodriguez finally got the adulation he'd never received at home.

( cheers and applause ) but when he got home to detroit, it was as if none of it had ever happened. he went back to doing what he'd been doing all his life. when we met him in september, he was unlike any rock star we'd ever met-- humble, unassuming, okay with working for a living. when... when both of your records bombed commercially, how shaken were you? >> rodriguez: oh, i was... bob simon, i was too disappointed to be disappointed. >> simon: people in south africa said that your music was the soundtrack of their youth. >> rodriguez: oh, yeah. ah, well, the... well, that was... obviously, it... they picked up on my stuff, yeah, yeah. >> simon: they "picked up" on your stuff. come on, it's a lot more than that. >> rodriguez: geez, listen to this guy. ( laughs ) go ahead, i'm listening. >> simon: i mean, that's a remarkable thing to say, that your music was the soundtrack of their youth. >> rodriguez: oh, i... it's... it's quite an honor that they

picked my stuff up, yeah. i owe south africa, for sure. >> simon: and what about all those years of backbreaking labor? was that hard on you? >> rodriguez: did... well, physically, it's hard, but it's... there's no shame in hard work. >> simon: you say there's... you say there's no shame in hard work. >> rodriguez: yes, sir. >> simon: i think you also said there's no shame in being poor. >> rodriguez: that's right. and poor doesn't mean dirty and poor doesn't mean stupid and poor does not mean mean. >> simon: poverty and dignity. that was the end of his story... except it wasn't. another twist of fate was coming his way. first-time swedish filmmaker malik bendjelloul was travelling around the world looking for a story to film. when he got to cape town, he heard about rodriguez. >> malik bendjelloul: this might be one of the best stories i ever heard. it was like cinderella or... or sleeping beauty or something like that. i... i never heard a story in my life that was so close to one of those classic fairytales, and had such a wonderful soundtrack, too.

you know, it was just... i was just... i just fell in love with this story. >> simon: there is love, and then there's money. malik didn't have much of the latter. but that wasn't going to stop him. >> bendjelloul: i used this one... the iphone 4, which i... i bought this $1.00 app, this super-8 app, and it looked almost the same. i mean, not exactly, but good enough. and a lot of stuff was filmed with this. >> simon: you shot a film with that? >> bendjelloul: yeah. >> simon: he then edited the film himself, composed the soundtrack himself, drew the animation himself. and then, after four years, he gave up. >> bendjelloul: i was 90% finished. i... i realized, i can't continue because i need food. my clothes had, like, holes under the arms, and i couldn't afford to buy new ones. i... i needed work. >> simon: while you were making a film about a poor man, you

became poor? >> bendjelloul: i became one myself. i did, yeah. i did, that's true. >> simon: eventually, he found producers who submitted his unfinished film to the sundance film festival in utah. they not only accepted it, they decided to open the festival with it. since hitting the theaters, it has become something of a phenomenon. and rodriguez has been resurrected once again. one of his first miraculous appearances, the david letterman show. ( playing "crucify your mind" ) when i found it ♪ ♪ what made yoy ♪ >> simon: and now, a sold-out tour across america. here he is at the highline ballroom in new york city. ♪ ♪ it was as if he'd never left the stage.

( cheers and applause ) >> rodriguez: i love when they scream. is there anybody here from detroit? ( applause ) my deepest condolences. ( laughter ) >> simon: he didn't mean it, of course. and his real homecoming happened at the kind of detroit joint which was in his genes. >> rodriguez: hey, youngbloods. >> i want to say hello, man. >> you're very inspiring. >> rodriguez: what's your name? >> charlie. >> i'm so excited to see you. >> awesome to meet you, man. thrilling. yes. >> a picture, too... >> rodriguez: you better hurry. >> ...because we're so excited. >> rodriguez: me, too. >> simon: and he'd been in their midst all the time. but it took 40 years for them to discover who he really was. ♪ ♪ rodriguez is 70 now and needs a little help walking. he can barely see. the world can see and hear him

today as the great songwriter he's always been. but there's still one abiding mystery. why do you think it's taken 40 years? >> rodriguez: well, i... i just wasn't meant to be so lucky then, you know. i think maybe that's it. >> simon: you know, when you left here before the film was made, you were rodriguez living in downtown detroit. now, you're "rodriguez, superstar." >> rodriguez: oh. >> simon: it has a ring to it, "rodriguez superstar." >> rodriguez: oh, no. this... well, that's nice of you to say that. it's superlatives they use. but i... we're having a good year, of course. >> simon: a good year and, at last, some money. >> regan rodriguez: he's a giving person with money. he's not a selfish person. and in fact, i think it could benefit him in a way of just being able to give it away. that alone will make him feel so good. >> simon: you don't think he's going to go out there and buy a

ferrari? >> regan rodriguez: ( laughs ) i don't see him buying a ferrari. i think... if anything, i'm hoping he'll get a new pair of glasses. ♪ ♪ i wonder ♪ wonder i do > >> go to 60minutesovertime.com to see rodriguez perform a set of his songs for "60 minutes." sponsored by viagra. [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex.

do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. and these come together, one thing you can depend on is that these will come together. delicious and wholesome. some combinations were just meant to be. tomato soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. [ male announcer ] navigating your future can be daunting without a financial plan. at pacific life, we can give you the tools to help you achieve financial independence. for more than 140 years, pacific life has assisted families and businesses in meeting their goals, even in uncertain economic times.

let us help protect the things that you work so hard for. to find out how, visit pacificlife.com. ♪